I loved being a teenager in Orange County during the 90’s. In those days, everyone in high school had a Disneyland pass, and during the summer we literally went every night. Voyager was the band that played sets at the Tomorrowland Terrace, and Mick the bassist was our guy. We were good kids, mostly, and we just wanted to wear short shorts and dance all night long, mingled with light speed trips to Endor and some rowdy shenanigans in the Haunted Mansion.

On weekends I played in multiple bands at venues throughout Southern California, from San Diego to Santa Barbara. What we lacked in musical talent and theory, we made up for in an abundance of short shorts, turtlenecks, ski goggles, and volume. And of course, everyone had multiple wigs.

We were a brotherhood of brilliant misfits, students of grammar and physics who aced exams by day and screamed anti-establishment into cheap microphones by night.

Those were the days when ‘Murica jokes were fresh, Thrift Shoppes were en vogue, and Tom Selleck jokes ran amok. But time marches on. Time and tide wait for no man, and here we are.

Today the Yimps brand represents a more thoughtful character – an intelligent luxury and modern leisure that is quietly witty.

Today the Yimps brand represents a more thoughtful character – an intelligent luxury and modern leisure that is quietly witty. Yet that secret smile from the 90’s persists in the Yimps genes, like special sequences of codons of DNA reminding you of your free-spirited heritage.

There is meaning behind owning Yimps. The brotherhood remains, the family endures. And there is a subtle nuance in our philosophy. We relish the memories of our absurd youth, then move forward into manhood with a nod and a wink. And that secret smile.

In reviewing the proofs from our photoshoot, I have noticed some tendencies and predispositions:

I like water.

The shorts should look great in each shot.

The image should be beautiful.

Water - Water seems to have a natural connection with luxury and leisure. Resorts. Beaches. Pools. Hot Tubs. We don’t necessarily try to depict Yimps as trunks per se, but in the anthropology of clothing, Yimps seem to be indigenous to water & pool settings. And of course, a quick dip never hurt a pair. Water makes things beautiful. If a woman is pretty, then a woman at the beach is more pretty. If shorts look good on a man, then those shorts look better on a man in a pool. Water is relaxation; it breathes like a slow tide. And a body immersed in water is completely mobile - free to move across three dimensions, but not rushed to do so. Water is a dreamstate fluid - an environment of escape. Once the photos are released, you’ll see how our use of water brought some otherwise unattainable geometry into our shots.

Shorts - This probably seems obvious, but it’s important to ensure the shorts look good in the photos. A photographer must juggle dozens of physical elements in staging each shot and capturing the moment, making it easy to overlook the raison d’etre. Countless times I have staged a shot and burned time, only to look at proofs and see that the shorts looked askew or wrinkly, or otherwise awkward.

Variables still vary. Things still fall apart. And a February pool party should have been by all calculations a disastrous affair.

Like a good recipe, beauty has a few ingredients: Shapes & lines, color & light composition, and the natural beauty of the subjects.

Beauty - Like a good recipe, beauty has a few ingredients: Shapes & lines, color & light composition, and the natural beauty of the subjects. I can’t wait to unveil some of the underwater shots - the shapes & lines offer such unique movement. When Michelangelo sculpted the human form out of slabs of marble, his chief talent was depicting sweeping motion out of a perfectly stationary object. It’s all about the lines & shapes. And with our water shots, I wanted to capture that level of motion - the free flowing forms of two people coming together in a floating embrace. You have to relinquish control under water. Hair strays. The bodies sway with the movement of the pool. And managing those variables makes it all the more exciting to capture a good shot. Of the three items above, point #3 is of critical importance to me. Not every shot has to highlight the shorts. And certainly not every shot has water. But every shot must depict beauty, or in its own way, BE beautiful. It might be intelligent, witty, thoughtful, or symmetrical. Or it might just have stunning models. But every shot should make an impression. You want to be the man wearing these shorts. And this is the woman who will love you when you wear them.

Have you ever participated in a fashion photoshoot?

In my opinion, it is a life experience not to be missed. It’s a bit like the front end of a complicated equation. Most people will only ever see the back half, the half with the finished product. They’ll never know the variables, substitutions, algorithms, probabilities, and derivatives required to arrive at an acceptable conclusion.

It’s tough math, a Yimps photoshoot.

Tough math, with lots of beautiful people in swimsuits and Yimps looking amazing.

This weekend we produced our first photoshoot of 2015 - a private pool party scene. It reminded me of our first ever photoshoot back in 2010 - also a pool party. Back on that day, July 9 2010, we did the whole shoot at one location: a private residence in an upscale Orange County neighborhood.

I’ll never forget that day. I was propmaster, creative director, wardrobe/stylist, and model coordinator. Johnny Beutler, one of the absolute best active wear photographers around, brought his gear & crew and performed photography duties for the day. Hiring him was easily the best decision I made for that shoot...having a true pro behind the lens resulted in images that we still use to this day.

Before that shoot, it all seemed so easy to me. Get beautiful people and take pictures of them looking cool. Very straightforward.

But in the immortal words of Yeats, “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold...”

And so it is with shoots. Models cancel. Scheduling mixups occur. Weather patterns change. Wardrobes malfunction.

So there we were, on Friday July 9th, with four male models and only two females (one of whom literally signed up for the shoot that same morning), wrong wardrobe sizes for half the guys, a pile of unassembled props, and time ticking away on precious sunlight. All these variables doing exactly what they’re supposed to do...varying.

With some vision, creativity, and guts, we made it work and got some stunning shots. We were hungry and tired, but we had a stack of fantastic proofs.

Fast forward to this weekend. Almost five years later...are we any better at this?

I think so.

Variables still vary. Things still fall apart. And a February pool party should have been by all calculations a disastrous affair.

But the glory of short shorts broke through the winter clouds like a lazerbeam of hope and triumph, and the months of preparation yielded what has been, in my estimation, the most prolific Yimps photoshoot we’ve ever had.

The only tragedy of this shoot will be the amount of incredible content left on the cutting room floor. We are simply overwhelmed with the proofs. They are so good. Our models were perfect. The women were gorgeous, the men brought energy, and the chemistry was organic.

As soon as the shoot was finished, the weather turned bad. It literally started raining about five hours after we were done. And the temperature dropped at least 15 degrees. It was as if some divine entity WANTED the weather to be good for the Yimps photoshoot. If there’s a god in heaven, I think I know what brand of shorts he’s wearing.

All blasphemy aside, it really is quite a thing to finish a shoot. And of course, at the end of a very long day, you take your first look at the proofs and say to yourself, “Time to get to work.”

Post production on photos is incredibly fun. This is the shiny glittery part of the equation, where you churn out finished products. The vision is realized; the razzle dazzles. But for me, the satisfaction remains on that left side of things, the side where you have to show your work to get credit.